I thought Sharks would be one of the better teams in Brazil this split. It was the two best players from the old Sharks, plus a mechanically skilled player in Frz, plus the best player and igl from Saw. They played Keyd Stars close in their opener but got rolled by NIP. I still think this team can become better than NIP and Furia, but there are several issues that I see from just casually watching them.
1) The BR players don't fit the playstyle of the EU players particularly Gaabxx.
Frz has been very good on the sentinel role but he does a lot of work on lurks or individual plays. Prozin has struggled with the initiators and generally plays off of the other BR players. The bigger problem is Gaabxx who plays a completely different style to the rest of his team. Addicted has introduced a more measured and information based style than most of BR, but Gaabxx still has an extremely risky approach. He is incredibly aggressive, but rarely opens space for his team such as the standard dash into smoke on site to open it up. His positioning and awareness has been really awkward, and against NIP, he was caught dashing, running, jumping, or with his back turned an absurd number of times. For instance when you watch Cauanzin's 4k clutch, Gaabxx is just bhoping into the open for the final kill.
2) Slow starts.
Sharks have won 3/10 pistols so far and are 0/7 in finding any value if they lose the pistol. In the 5 maps they have played so far they have been at -8, -6, -5, -4, and -4 round differential at some point in the first half. Despite being 1/5 in maps so far, they have a positive round differential in the second halfs. Frz and Killdream have been pretty good with sheriffs, but Sharks need to figure out how to win without guns.
My rating for each player so far:
Frz: 8/10: As I suspected, sentinel fits his playstyle much better since he lacked the aggression for duelists and struggled with his aim while juggling lots of utility on initiators. He has quietly put up the best sentinel stats in BR with some nutty aim. His utility isn't always in sync with his team, but it has been pretty good overall.
Killdream 7/10: The most valuable player on Sharks, he has had a couple of really rough halfs so far, but his aim and astra utility is on par with the best in BR. If he can eliminate those dry spells, his controller stats would be the best by far.
Gaabxx 6/10: His opening stats against heat are great, but he threw so many rounds against NIP and has provided very little value other than the rounds where he pops off.
Prozin 5/10: He has been one of the weakest initiators so far which should change, but his utility has not been combined with killdream and addicted as much as I would like to see. His aim has also been slow to arrive.
Addicted 4/10: Sharks have looked good when they get the information plays or aggressive combos, but the lack of value from non-gun rounds combined with the lack of control over the individual plays the BR players are making makes me grade him low. Additionally, his individual form has been pretty bad so far.
I think this team will rebound, but it might be too late in this group of death. They really need Ingaming to upset Furia. I don't understand why there is only single round robin when the schedule could easily fit having each team play twice per week. If you spread your group stage out over so many weeks, this format is not optimal. Normally I blame BR VCT for bad bracket decisions however NA and EMEA have the same problem.
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